I actually got the idea to get a rook piercing about three years ago, in February 2001. I'd just gotten my nipples pierced, and after looking around the image galleries on BME, I decided that a rook piercing would be nice for my next piercing. A few of my friends were planning on going to Dogstar a week or two after spring break, and I decided I'd get it done then.
At A Glance Author mo Contact mo@bme.anon IAM anacoluthon When It just happened Artist T Studio Dogstar Location Durham, NC However, when I was visiting my parents over the break, my mom, who had been pretty upset by my nipple piercings and didn't really know what to think about my desire to get more, really wanted me to wait and get it done later. Things were getting strained between my parents and I so I decided to put it off, more to keep the peace when I visited them than anything else. From there I got some piercings that were less visible, but the idea of a rook piercing was still in the back of my mind, waiting for the right time.
For a while, I was getting piercings about twice a year, in September (around my birthday) and January, but since I was saving up for a tattoo this past October, my last piercing was in September of 2002, a 10g navel that I had to retire about a year later due to scarring. For the past few weeks, I'd started to think about getting my rook pierced sometime soon, and I figured I'd get it done sometime this semester. I had a conversation with my partner Nolan about wanting to have it pierced soon, so we decided to just go to Dogstar yesterday (2-7-04) since our schedules were free and T, who's done most of my piercings, would be working that day.
(A quick note about Dogstar: anyone in the general Durham/Chapel Hill/Raleigh area should check out this shop. I've had excellent piercings and a beautiful tattoo from skilled, friendly artists there and it's clean and in a wonderful area. I can't recommend this shop highly enough.)
I was only a little bit nervous on the way to Dogstar, but I knew that the rook is supposed to be on the high end of the pain scale as far as piercings go and I was apprehensive about that. Sadly, I'm a huge wimp when it comes to pain and even though I'd never give up body modification because it hurts, I tend to get pretty nervous beforehand and I'm one of the only people T pierces with a habit of screaming when the needle goes through. At least she's used to me doing it by now – the first time I went to her she was really startled when I screamed, and I was pretty embarrassed.
Nolan and I had a bit of a wait, so we wandered around Ninth Street for a few minutes and chatted with the woman who works the counter until T was ready for me. I explained how I wanted it – with a curved barbell instead of a cbr, with short enough jewelry that there isn't a lot of it sticking out on either side (but of course enough to account for swelling), and as close to my head as possible. Happily, T said that rooks are some of her favorite piercings to do, and knowing that she was going to enjoy piercing me made me feel a lot calmer about the whole procedure.
T spent a while poking around in my tiny ears and making markings, and I could tell the placement was what I wanted when I could barely see the dots because they were so close to my head. I ended up using both the mirror on the wall and her hand mirror to see where the placement would be. I was starting to get a little bit nervous by now, but much less than I have been before piercings in the past. I think I'm getting a lot more used to dealing with the knowledge that I'm about to be in pain, and I'm less skittish about it now.
After we got the placement sorted out properly, T had me lie down on her table (the kind used in doctor's offices) and spent a little bit of time preparing everything before piercing me. I focused on taking a lot of deep breaths and relaxing (I've found that thinking about being in yoga class helps me immensely in that regard), and she went ahead and pierced me.
Considering how much pain I'd expected, I was really surprised. It was a feeling of strong pressure and a very dull, spread out sort of pain, not the sharp pain I imagined I'd feel. I didn't scream at all, which amazed me. I just said "oh" softly and that was it. My ear was throbbing but the pain was amazingly bearable. I had read a lot of experiences that said cartilage piercings tend to "pop" but I didn't hear any loud sounds, just a bit of a slidy sound as T led the needle through and inserted the jewelry. The jewelry insertion actually hurt a lot more than the piercing itself did, but again I didn't make that much noise and it wasn't horrible. She let me rest for a minute before screwing on the bead, but before too long I was done and the pain was fading into a dull ache in my left ear.
The end result is exactly how I wanted it – the piercing's close enough to my head that you can't even see it if you look at me from directly in front of me, and it's lined up well without a lot of jewelry sticking out from either side. I thanked T many times and was on my way once she measured Nolan's conch jewelry so she could order him some shorter barbells.
Once I stepped outside, the cold air made my ear start to hurt a bit, but it never got too bad. I'm very thankful I don't have any hair to speak of, because when I had longer hair I'm sure it would have gotten tangled in the jewelry a lot. I haven't really bumped it yet, although there have been a few times today when the pain's gone down enough that I've forgotten the piercing's there and accidentally brushed my hand against my ear a bit. I don't think it'll be much of a problem, though. Sadly, most of my winter hats and my glasses make my ear hurt, but I can only hope that I'll be able to wear them in a week or two when it isn't as painful.
I'm really happy with my rook. Most of my piercings have a very concrete reason behind me getting them, and this one was a little bit different. It doesn't have the same kind of meaning behind it that my other piercings do, but really I got it to be good to myself and that seems as good a reason as any others.
[two days later: soaking this piercing is proving to be interesting. I've been able to use a shot glass for it, amazingly enough – if I fill it up pretty much all the way and then stick my ear in it, I can create a pretty good seal and get my rook submerged for a few minutes. I look really silly standing in my bathroom with a tiny trickle of water escaping to roll down my face, but that's ok. I'm trying a pretty minimalist cleaning routine for starters. Right now, I'm doing a salt soak in the morning and soaking it in the shower at night. I've healed enough piercings to know that my body likes being able to take care of things on its own, and as long as I keep my ear clean and soak the crusties off (when the appear, I haven't gotten any yet) I should be ok. I'm sure there are a lot of people who'd benefit from a more rigorous cleaning schedule, but I think this is best for my body.]